Staff

The ultimate goal of Asian Men Who have Sex with Men (MSM) Project is to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among Asian men who have sex with men by promoting safer sex practices, risk reduction behaviours and early intervention in culturally appropriate ways.

The MSM education outreach program is targeted specifically to the increasing Asian Canadian communities which include the Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese. The goal of this program is to prevent the spread and the development of HIV/AIDS amongst Asian Canadian MSM by promoting safer sex practices, risk reduction behaviors and early intervention. Our services reached to both Asian communities and gay community.

There are barriers to HIV prevention for the Asian MSM. The external are 1) Homophobia within the Asian communities 2) Racism within the gay community 3) Languages and cultural barriers and 4) Asian men who internalized racism and homophobia.5) Lack to resources for especially for clients who may have no or low level of English and 5) Lack of literatures, studies or researches of HIV surveillance about ACMSM in Canada.

To combat some of the issues, ACAS have developed program such as iRice for the internet, Sexpert for the bath house, and bars outreach at community events. One of the highlight of our program this year program is the evaluation of Sexpert and iRice. With the help of McMaster University’s Community Link on HIV/AIDS Research (CLEAR Unit), we are in the process to carry out the program evaluation. The result of these findings will enable ACAS to monitor and improve our intervention programs. These evaluation were designed based on the need which have been identify by gay Asian community through community consultation, volunteer’s input and client feed back.

Although we target the gay Asian community, we continue to collaborate with other organizations such as 1) the M2MEN (formerly know as Gay Men Education Network) bar and bathhouse project in order to enhance the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS education, 2) the Community Link on HIV/AIDS Research (CLEAR Unit) to evaluate our education and outreach interventions,  and 3) National HIV/AIDS Community Based Social Marketing Campaign in promoting the “Assumption” campaign. This join effort have produce many positive result and opportunity to share resources and network.

Over all, this program is unique because our target group is actively involved at all levels of our program from planning, implementation and evaluation. It is not only helping stop the spread of HIV/ AIDS in target population but also enhance the process of capacity-building within Asian MSM population.

On behalf of ACAS, I would like to thank all of you for your on going support in the past and urge your continue investment in these programs.

Daniel Le
MSM Education and Outreach Coordinator
Contact Info:
Tel: (416) 963-4300 ext.26
Fax: (416) 963-4371
Email: gaap@acas.org